Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

F/X Blu-ray Movie Review

Practical Effects

Reviewed by Michael Reuben June 9, 2015

F/X was a sleeper hit in early 1986: based on a "spec" script from two unknown writers, directed by a first-time feature director, cast without major stars and distributed by the independent (and now-defunct) Orion Pictures. It was successful enough to spawn a sequel, F/X: The Deadly Art of Illusion (1991), and a series that ran on CBS from 1996-1998. The film's central device of a movie effects artist who is drawn into a world of crime and possible espionage wasn't entirely new, because the original Mission: Impossible TV series covered much of the same territory. Many of the IMF team's tricks involved disguise and faked scenarios, but those people knew they were dealing with dangerous adversaries. F/X was about a guy who, having spent his entire adult life pretending, suddenly found that the blood and bullets were real and had to adapt quickly.

MGM currently holds the rights and has licensed F/X to Kino Lorber, which has issued the film on Blu-ray as part of its "studio classics" series.

Rollie Tyler (Bryan Brown) is one of the top effects men in the pre-digital film industry. Currently overseeing the gore and pyrotechnics for a film shooting in New York City, he is also dating the female lead, Ellen Keith (Diane Venora). Rollie's downtown workshop is a gallery of his previous creations, including posters and creatures from numerous low-budget horror classics, some of them real. (Zombie, Fade to Black and I Dismember Mama are among the references.)

After a day of filming simulated carnage, Rollie is approached by a man who gives several names but is ultimately identified as Martin Lipton (Cliff De Young). He says he's from the Justice Department and wants to hire Rollie to stage the fake assassination of a mob informant, Nick DeFranco (Jerry Orbach, convincingly cast against type). If DeFranco's former associates think he's already dead, they'll give up trying to have him hit before he can testify against them.

Though initially reluctant, Rollie is persuaded to take the job by Lipton's superior, Col. Mason (Mason Adams), and he devises an elaborate rig for DeFranco that will create the appearance of his being massacred by a hitman in a restaurant. But something goes wrong. Someone meddles with the ammo in the gun, and, according to news reports, DeFranco is really dead. Rollie is wanted for his murder, and whenever he tries to contact the authorities, official-looking gunmen try to kill him. When he tries to hide at Ellen's apartment, violence follows. In desperation, Rollie calls on his long-time assistant, Andy (Martha Gelman), to help him change his appearance and disappear while he devises a strategy to clear his name.

Elsewhere in the city, the NYPD detective who first captured DeFranco, Lt. Leo McCarthy (Brian Dennehy), is furious that federal authorities managed to lose him. Already on thin ice for his big mouth and bad attitude, Leo risks his badge when he learns that the investigation of DeFranco's murder has been assigned to another detective and insists on injecting himself into the investigation. The warnings of his partner, Mickey (Joe Grifasi), are brushed aside. With Leo retracing Rollie's steps, and Rollie using every trick he knows to find Lipton (and whoever he's working for), it is only a matter of time before their paths across. By the time they do (at a secluded and heavily guarded suburban estate), Rollie has prepared a grab bag of tricks and illusions, all of them designed to mislead and incapacitate the estate's inhabitants. Only Rollie knows which bullets are real and which ones are fake.

F/X Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

F/X was shot by the Oscar-nominated Czech cinematographer Miroslav Ondrícek (Amadeus), whom director Mandel credits with designing a lighting scheme that would allow the effects sequences to be shot fluidly and effectively, minimizing the need for costly retakes. Kino's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of F/X offers a sturdy presentation of Ondrícek's work, with a few minor issues. The source material, which probably wasn't the original camera negative, shows minor damage here and there; anyone who grew up watching films in the pre-digital age probably won't be bothered by these occasional dust marks and small scratches.

The film's aesthetic is low-key and realistic. Rarely does Ondrícek apply stylized lighting with intense contrast or saturated colors, although the opening sequence (a bloody shootout in a fancy restaurant) and a matching scene later in the film (the DeFranco assassination) are exceptions. Generally, the colors and lighting are intended to complement Mandel's exploration of the relation between truth and illusion in a world where simulations of violence are part of our daily entertainment. Within these constraints, the Blu-ray image is reasonably sharp and detailed, with (mostly) solid blacks, acceptable shadow detail and a natural looking grain pattern that doesn't appear to have been unduly manipulated electronically.

Kino has mastered F/X on a BD-25 at an average bitrate of 21.46 Mbps. I would have preferred a higher rate, but the bits appear to have been allocated with some care, so that demanding scenes like the car chase through lower Manhattan receive the bandwidth they need. Artifacts were not an issue.

F/X Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Blu-ray of F/X features a lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 soundtrack that has been the subject of controversy. According to the film's end credits, it was released in Dolby Stereo. Some versions in other regions have been reported to have a mono track, and this Blu-ray release often sounds like a 2.0 mono release. However, after comparing it to MGM's 1986 DVD, which is listed as having "stereo surround", I believe that the Blu-ray features the same soundtrack (with lossless encoding). The track itself just doesn't have significant stereo separation or rear channel activity, no doubt because of budget constraints. But listen, for example, to the scene where Lipton and DeFranco arrive for Rollie to apply the makeup, appliances and squibs for the phony murder; rain is pouring down, and the sound of rainfall is obviously different in the left and right speakers. Bill Conti's suspenseful score (which sounds quite good in this presentation) also spreads fully across the front soundstage, while the dialogue (which is always clear) is pushed forward and centered—which wouldn't happen if both channels were identical. Overall, while this is far from the most interesting or impressive stereo I have heard on Blu-ray, it does sound like stereo. The effects layered into the mix are excellent, from tiny explosions to big ones, from cars skidding and colliding to all manner of gunfire, from huge panes of glass shattering in the opening sequence to a tiny hole being blown in a window by a sniper's bullet.

F/X Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

MGM released F/X on DVD in 2000 with just a trailer. Image reissued that disc in 2010 in a two-disc set with F/X 2. Kino has added some fine new extras.

• Interview with Director Robert Mandel (1080p; 1.78:1; 14:02): Newly recorded for Blu-ray, this interview with the film's director provides an informative look at the genesis and production of F/X, including the last-minute budget increase that allowed him to stage the elaborate car chase through lower Manhattan. Mandel is effusive in his praise of both the cast and the experienced crew who helped him bring the script to life.



• The Making of F/X (480i; 1.33:1; 14:10): This vintage EPK is more detailed and interesting than the usual. It includes on-set and location footage from some of the most elaborate stunt and effect sequences, as well as interviews with Mandel, Brown, Orbach and effects supervisor John Stears, who says that he was approached for jobs similar to those offered to Rollie in the film and always turned them down.



• F/X Trailer (1080p; 1.33:1; 2:35): "Someone else is writing the script . . . but Rollie Tyler's most special effects are yet to come."



• F/X 2 Trailer (1080p; 1.85:1; 1:51): "Rolllie and Leo together again . . . for what could be the last time."

F/X Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the features of F/X that attracted Mandel to the script was its characters, and a big reason for the film's success was his casting choices, many of whom were character actors with little or no mainstream film exposure. Dennehy was probably the best known from films like First Blood and Silverado, but Venora was mostly known for stage work. De Young and Adams were familiar from TV, and Orbach was a Broadway star. Brown was well-known in Australia, but in America his only major project was a TV miniseries, The Thorn Birds. What they all shared was the ability to create believable people in the midst of a situation that rapidly escalated from odd to bizarre. Without their performances, F/X would not have succeeded, and it certainly wouldn't have lasted. Highly recommended.